Happy Birthday Doman!

Our sweet little Doman is growing up! I'd say I can't believe he is four, but I actually can because I hardly remember our lives before Doman. He is always happy and sweet. He is in love with the Cars movie toys and still holds a soft spot in his heart for trains and puzzles. His best friend is definitely Max and they play endlessly together. This year with lots of sickness, two sets of stitches, numerous other trips to the ER and specialists, I have seen what amazing strength and patience he has. We don't know what we'd do without his calming, sweet personality in our crazy little family. He is an amazing boy and I learn a lot from him. Doman you are truly a blessing!

And a slide show to commemorate Doman's first four years. Enjoy!

A sad day

The only thing I hate about living in a ward with lots of students is that your friends move all too frequently. I said goodbye to a good friend, Bethany tonight who I will miss! We've had good times. Sewing and crafting all sorts of things, being pregnant with baby girls together, playing Nerts (ha!)... I will hold these memories dear. We're so happy for you guys to start "real life," but you're gonna be missed!

And here are our sweet baby girls. We're going to miss you too, Brookie! She is such a cute, happy girl! Maybe one day we'll live close and they can be little friends again!

HEAT STROKE!!!

So today was the hottest day of the year for us... in the mid-90's! I absolutely hate the heat. I just start thinking about it and I get an immediate migraine. I noticed Mindi mentioned that it is hotter than Phoenix, Arizona today. What??? Isn't that why we all live here?! This would be the day I'd like to just stay in the house and not do any running around... no such luck! Instead it was a busy day as always, but oh, SO hot!

The running around started with taking Doman to Maddie's for playgroup. Fenna was kind enough to let Max stay and play too since I needed to take Cali to physical therapy at the Children's hospital... things are so much easier with just the two kids! Then back to Fenna's to pick up Doman and Max (late, of course.)

A quick lunch while getting Max ready for his water play-day at preschool. I drop Max and Ellie off at preschool with their supplies only to find out when I returned home that Max left one of his swim sandals and would need it to play in the water! Back to preschool...

Doman was next, off to speech therapy. This was actually a good part of the day... he has now officially been in speech for more than a year and after a recent pre-evalution, his therapist says he's made it to the average level. After his official evaluation next week we'll know for sure. Yahoo! That would be two less appointments per week! And that will help a lot since I think he has many years to come of physical therapy.

Just thinking about my day makes me feel hot (that and the fact that we don't have AC!) And the day isn't over yet!

SO, I see the weather report for tomorrow says it is going to be just as hot as it was today... kill me now!!!

The only happy thing that can come from a hot day... Cali got to wear this little tank before it was too small for her. Dan got this when he was on one of his trips a few years ago before I was even expecting Lincoln! He was just dying to have girl! We're so glad she made it here... we couldn't live without this sweet little thing!

Goodbye to the Thomases

As Max would say, "goodbye Sister and Mr. Thomas!" We are so sad to see Max's primary teachers move. He has loved being in their class for almost a year and a half. Even though Max is quite a wild card in Primary, they loved him and took such good care of him. We will miss them!

Utah Trip

Another fun trip to Utah! This was in honor of Dan's brother Jake getting married. He married such a fun girl and we are excited to get to know her better. Plus we are thrilled to not be the only married couple in Dan's family... and we know cousins are right around the corner! ;)

We didn't take a lot of pictures, but we had an awesome trip. We weren't too busy so we got to relax and enjoy doing lots of fun things with the kids. Some highlights were swimming, the Dinosaur Park in Ogden, the Children's museum at Gateway, the Clark Planetarium, and visiting Dan's and my grandparents.


Click here to see some pictures we did manage to take.

Happy birthday to me!

I had such a great birthday receiving everything from cards, emails, packages, phone calls, texts, flowers, and even a yummy pot roast dinner which is just what my Mom would have done! No need to feel homesick in Berkeley with such great friends and my family in their various places. Thanks so much to everyone who made my birthday so special!

The kids didn't let me have a boring birthday...
they helped Dan with this great cake, decorated the house,
and even made me play party games!

And I had lots of help opening presents! This one being
a fun one... you might have to zoom in to see it, and since I
know a lot of you are wondering... let's just say,
Yes, I did get obsessed, and I already finished it!

Cali sitting!

At 7 months our little girl is sitting up. She is so much like Doman it's scary! Also this week she took her very first bottle!!! I can't believe how stubborn she has been about this... once again, just like Doman. Anyone who's nursed a baby exclusively for 7 months knows what an awesome feeling that is for me.

Max turned 5!

It is so hard to believe I have a five year old, but it is also a great feeling to see my kids getting a little older and more independent!

Max is energetic as always and gets more fun to be around every day. He is such a little person now! He loves to be funny and tell jokes and he is constantly hiding from me to jump out and give me a big scare. He entertains the boys, takes care of Cali, and keeps me company all day.

We had a great birthday with Max from start to finish! It was his special day to do whatever he wanted. Then that weekend he had a birthday party with his friends. Fun, fun!

Max's favorite presents were two more planet heroes for his collection...Jupiter and Saturn.

At preschool that day Max was the center of attention.
This is him with his teacher Nelly who he adores!

After preschool Max chose to go to Chuck E Cheese. :)

Max had a CARS birthday party with his friends.
This is them playing a tractor tipping game... pretty fun stuff.

Even though Max wanted a Mater cake, I was glad he settled for McQueen since there was a cake pan for that and I didn't have to get too creative!

Karen's first post!

I really appreciate Dan starting us up a blog several months ago when Cali was born, but I think I'm finally ready to participate! Don't get your hopes up...this doesn't necessarily mean there will be more posts, but I'll do my best! Since I'm not doing a great job at keeping up with scrapbooks or writing in my journal, maybe this blog can help me get things recorded a bit more on the side.

We haven't posted anything since Christmas because these past few months have been miserable...Dan going on 3 research trips, everyone getting sick multiple times, and just one crazy thing after another! But does anyone really want to read about that or see really crabby pictures of my kids (and me!)? I didn't think so. So, while I'm trying to be real on my blog, I will avoid using my blog to complain about how hard life can be---I'll save my complaining for Dan and Jen. :)

Christmas 2007

What a great Christmas vacation we had in Utah this year! It was stress-free and thoroughly enjoyable. The kids were all healthy and slept good (including Lincoln when he was in the laundry room)! Mostly we just enjoyed seeing everyone, especially Karen's sister Anne - just home from her mission - and all our cute nieces and nephews.

Here are a few video clips the family might enjoy. You can also see pictures here.

The Barlow grandkids dressed up for Grandpa's reading of the Nativity.
Max, Doman and Lincoln were the Three Wise Men, and they took good care of baby Jesus (played by Cali).

Some Turbo Cranium footage. We had a lot of fun playing games and staying up late together. See if you can guess what Josh and Dave are "puppeting". It seems easy now, but at 2:00 am, Josh was just asking too much of his team.

Lincoln turns two!

This is a little late, but we can't talk about Christmas until we commemorate our little chugger's birthday. We really have fun with Lincoln. He has such a fun personality and keeps us laughing all the time. Here are a few pictures from the big day.

Blowing out the two birthday candles

Playing with mommy at the Habitot (a small children's museum he loves)

More fun at the Habitot - Link loves the water toys!

Opening Grandpa Barlow's annual birthday book

Opening a present from Grandma and Grandpa

BYU vs Utah 2007

Here's a recap for those who didn't see the game.. or for those who want to see it again. Go Cougs!

The epic battle between good and evil...

... was decided on Saturday, November 24, with BYU prevailing over the archenemy, 17-10. Here's a shot of our newest BYU fan when she watched the game-winning touchdown.

Grandma and Grandpa Briggs

The Briggs grandparents came into town for the weekend before Halloween, and the kids had a great time getting to know them better. Max and Grandpa are best friends - we were very impressed that Grandpa could keep up with Max's imagination! There are more pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/tannem/BriggsVisitOctober2007.

Halloween

Max's obsession with the Solar System is stronger than ever. He wanted to be the planet Mars for Halloween, so we decided to all be a planet! All the boys loved it! If you aren't planet savvy, here is the line-up. Dan is Jupiter, Karen Saturn, Max Mars, Doman Neptune, Lincoln Earth, and Cali is the Sun. :)

Cali made a cute Sun

The boys starting the trick-or-treating trek.


We will probably get some more pictures posted soon at http://picasaweb.google.com/tannem

Here's a short video of Lincoln trick or treating. :)

Cali's first month

This month has been predictably crazy, as Cali Anne moves into her spot in the family. While it is pretty tough to get Cali to go to sleep, once she is out, she can always stretch for several hours at night. We're still trying to figure out which of the boys she resembles the most - our current guess is a mix of Doman and Max. The boys still adore Cali and have been really great with her.

Max started preschool again, and he looks forward to it every day (even though he loves to be at home so much!). Doman has a little preschool group with some ward friends, and he also goes to speech therapy twice a week. His talking progress has been phenomenal lately. It turns out he has a funny little sense of humor. :) Lincoln is quickly becoming more compatible with the older boys, as he learns to respect their stuff and respond to directives a lot better. He is one funny dude, as some pictures we post might reveal.

The boys and I have been having a great time on our afternoon excursions to parks and museums. They are really fun to take around in the car, and they love to play at the many parks in our area. It's a good bonding time for us.

Karen and Cali generally hold down the fort at home while we are gone in the afternoon, although Cali has adventured out to a park with us once. Karen has enjoyed tweaking the smaller-than-ever apartment to accommodate our new arrival. We switched rooms with the boys to give them the bigger room, in anticipation of Lincoln joining the two older boys in their room soon.

We had a great time visiting with Dave and Milena on their long layover coming back from their Europe trip. We kept them up really late, but it was party time baby! Then, we were lucky to spend some time with Barbara on her way back from Hawaii.

We are all really excited to come back to Utah for Christmas this year. The boys will love seeing all of their cousins and I think they'll appreciate the snow even more than last year. If you will be in Utah for the holidays, we'll see you soon!

We have posted a few pictures at the following link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/tannem/Sept07

Cali Anne Briggs

Hi family and friends!

It's time for our semiannual update (hopefully we get these coming a little faster). This one was prompted by the birth of our first baby girl, Cali Anne... named after California and our time here at Cal, and Anne after both of our baby sisters. We are so happy to add a girl to the family. At birth, 6:49 am August 22, she was a healthy 8 lbs 8 oz, 21 1/4 inches long. There was a brief complication, as we waited for her blood platelet count to rise, but she made her platelets really fast and avoided a blood transfusion and a long stay in the NICU. Everyone came home on Friday and we are enjoying crafting a new schedule for these kids. The boys have been very sweet with Cali so far.

We may add some more updates later, but for now I'll get this up with some pictures.

February update

The past few months have been eventful! Here's a little peek. I am writing this while I sit at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) doing experiments at 2 in the morning, so if anything I write is illegible, or poorly styled, ...

We enjoyed Christmas break in Utah. For the first time, our kids remained relatively healthy during the break, aside from Link losing his lunch a few times. I went running twice in the frigid cold weather before giving up on that crazy idea. We appreciated the opportunities to visit with friends and family at various reunions and shindigs. Karen and I particularly enjoyed spending some time with Grandpa and Grandma Pike in Gunnison.

After a delayed return flight home to sunny California, we settled back into life. Max is really enjoying his preschool, which meets every morning. He loves planets, and nearly every night, I am called upon to sing a "silly planets" song to him. This consists of singing a song about the planets (learned from the popular kid's show, Blue's Clues), but replacing all of the planets' names with characters from other shows, or family members, or whatever else we can think of. I think we have done at least 20 different "silly" versions of the the song so far.

Doman loves trains, and puzzles. We have been busy with Doman's pediatrician and a developmental specialist, trying to figure out how to help him gain weight and develop his muscle strength. The best news yet is that he doesn't have Celiac disease (i.e. we don't have to go gluten-free!). He is quite a happy child and has a natural peacemaking tendency that is adorable... one can often observe him willingly breaking off a piece of his snack to share with a marauding Lincoln.

Speaking of the devil, Lincoln is quite a handful! I like to call him "little chort" (chort = Russian for devil). It is hilarious to watch Link try to copy everything he sees his brothers doing! I'm sure Link is a typical baby, doing the things babies have been doing from time immemorial, but we are still enchanted watching him. He lumbers about, nigh unto impossible to stop. When he finds something he likes to hold, sometimes it will stay desperately gripped in his stubby little hand for hours.

If you haven't checked out BYU basketball lately, you're missing out. For the briefest of updates, you can always peruse the headlines at
http://cougarfan.com/teams/basketball_m/
March Madness is right around the corner!

I will try to post some pictures on this blog from time to time. I haven't been on top of our family media lately.

Intro

I hope I can manage to post some interesting anecdotes about our sometimes mundane, sometimes adventurous, life here in Berkeley, CA. We've been here for a little over 2 years now, and we are enjoying ourselves.